Comments on: Shelby holding up NASA stimulus funding

By: Is Sen. Shelby Helping or Hurting NASA? | The Online Space News

Is Sen. Shelby Helping or Hurting NASA? | The Online Space News — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:11:13 +0000

[…] Shelby holding up NASA stimulus funding, Space Politics […]

By: Martijn Meijering

Martijn Meijering — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:53:08 +0000

I meant a little chat with Shelby.

By: Martijn Meijering

Martijn Meijering — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:52:37 +0000

Another brilliant move by another space Senator. Shelby and Nelson are in a bipartisan race to the bottom.

If Shelby and Nelson can both block progress, then they need each other or they will both get nothing. Might this explain Nelson’s support for Ares and his recent backtracking on COTS-D? Maybe he had a little chat with Nelson.

By: Major Tom

Major Tom — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:28:57 +0000

Shelby holds up funding over a lousy $150M for a much needed COTS D effort, while the House appropriators have cut the topline budget for Constellation by nearly $700M. What an idiotic and wasteful use of limited political leverage…

Another brilliant move by another space Senator. Shelby and Nelson are in a bipartisan race to the bottom.

Sigh… FWIW…

By: MindTheSpaceGap

MindTheSpaceGap — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:44:37 +0000

At first glance, one might think that Sen. Shelby would be open to COTS D, since most of the companies interested in that plan to use EELVs manufactured in Decatur, Alabama.

But apparently Marshall is so paranoid that they won’t allow any NASA element to sign a contract with any company to even contemplate launching a human being to orbit on anything other than Ares 1, since that would be an existence proof that liquid rockets might be human capable, at which point The Great Myth of Shuttle Derived begins to unravel.

(The exception to this rule, of course, is Samara’s Soyuz rocket, which launches Energia’s Soyuz capsule. MSFC couldn’t keep the ISS Program from signing THAT contract. In fact, that contract helps Keep Ares Sold.) .

By: Jonathan Goff

Jonathan Goff — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:54:47 +0000

Yeah, banking on Shelby getting the boot isn’t very likely.

~Jon

By: sc220

sc220 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:47:27 +0000

Shelby is up for reelection next year. If he is not relected, his successor will not inherit his membership of the Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately, last time round he was elected by a landslide.

He’ll probably get 65-70% of the vote. I think he won by that margin 5 years ago. Remember, people love their politicians in the South. You can’t go a mile without passing a building named after a famous senator or congressman.

By: Martijn Meijering

Martijn Meijering — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:41:02 +0000

By: Kevin Parkin

Kevin Parkin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:05:51 +0000

This abuse of power and those before it are why NASA cannot succeed.

One of Shelby’s earlier interventions convinced me that the only way to save the space age is to separate NASA’s many types of activity into many different types of organizations.

Operational activites need to be carried out by companies, research activites need to migrate back into the universities, fixed national assets like wind tunnels and propulsion test stands need to become shared experimental facilities akin to synchrotrons, particle accelerators and telescopes.

While these very different activities continue to be artificially bundled together as NASA centers, geopolitical forces will continue to be misaligned with and sometimes oppose commercial, engineering and scientific progress in space. Perhaps the best example of this opposition of interests is Alabama’s monopoly on rockets and propulsion.

By: common sense

common sense — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:38:25 +0000

@Sheridan:

The Augustine panel WILL conclude that COTS MUST go on, especially for this kind of money. If not: bye bye human space exploration!

Nobody will believe that $150M are damaging Ares so much (!) or that it can put Ares back on track…